But the question that came to me later was can we really be a free people if we are forced to pay for someone else's healthcare? or education? or food and diapers and baby formula? Obviously we already are paying for many of these services for other people. Should we be? Many people accuse us Republicans of being greedy when we raise this objection; I can honestly say that is not the issue for me. I have no problem with charitable giving, and if anyone were to look at our tax records, they would see that our giving this year was quite generous. The concern for me is ideological--how can we be a free people when we are compelled to subsidize the expenses of others (with no say over the way our money is being used)? And if we compromise in this area, can we possibly preserve our freedoms in other areas?
Further, if the government is the entity deciding who gets the money, it will also weigh in on how it is being used. We already see this in the area of public education--we as parents have abdicated the responsibility to educate our children, and now it is the state that decides what they learn; not only that, the state wants to decide who among us can educate our own children! (See a decision made today in a CA court that stated that only parents who are certified teachers are qualified to teach their own children. Never mind a host of research evidence that shows homeschool children score better in testing than their public educated peers, regardless of the qualifications of their parents!) If the state doles out the money for healthcare, it will hold the authority over what medical procedures we undergo. Forget holistic and alternative forms of medicine--if it's not approved by the government, it will not be a permissible use of our money, (paid in taxes). On the reverse side, how comfortable do my Christian readers feel about the idea that our tax dollars will likely be used to fund abortions, sometimes for underage girls, and possibly even used to fund sex change operations? The more power we give to the government, in the hope of getting greater benefits for ourselves, the more power we give government over us. Our forefathers fought with their lives to be free of government coercion, and we have gradually handed over those hard-won freedoms to gain greater comforts. I think we will quickly find it was not a worthwhile trade.
2 comments:
Hello, I found your blog from Call Her Blessed, and would just like to say I really appreciate your comments and (now reading this) your blog. I did not know of the homeschooling fiasco that looks like just passed (I wonder if a college grad can, however, get out of the loophole as one (grad) can substitute for any teacher simply by filling out a substitute form? in NE where I live this is very easy to do.)
In CA, though, my friend and her husband (and therefore newborn) was covered by a program called MediCal and got everything for the baby paid for, including their delivery and appointments, which were at a birth center with a midwife as opposed to a more traditional hospital room. Since they are above the poverty line now, they are now funding their second baby's delivery, but what would they have done without it?
I can understand your issue with the abortion. I too am pro-life, and that is the farthest thing I want for our country. But as a fellow Christian, I can't rightfully say I would deny 40+ million americans BASIC health care (as that would be the majority of it--just getting their teeth cleaned and basic doctors visits, etc.) who are too poor to pay for it. I am not saying that one 'party' is more 'christian' than the other--don't get me wrong, I have voted for both parties in my lifetime, so I don't want to 'Christianize' one side or the other. BUT I feel as Christians, we have a responsibility to help the poor...and this is such a basic way to do it (not to mention cap welfare, too, and instead of crippling those people, 'teaching a man to fish so he can fish for the rest of his life' instead of just 'feeding him a fish').
Here is an article I think would be helpful...it's an embarassment of our government's mismanagement with money. Hopefully, we could turn that WASTED money into something that would help our fellow americans.
$1 trillion could definitely cover quite a bit of basic health care.
http://www.rd.com/national-interest/your-tax-dollars/the-government-is-wasting-your-tax-dollars/P3/article.html
You raise a good point. Charity given in a voluntary way is quite different from an imposed levy which is used by bureaucrats. It is a problem. Historically, the Christian church carried out all welfare work. Rulers only kept order. Welfare became a government area, partly because private agencies did not cover all the needs. The lesson: a society or community which really behaves in a Godly way will diminish the need for government to intervene/interfere. So what do the people want to do about it?
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